Arkham Horror: Cursed, Delayed, Arrested

I’m sure I was at least partially motivated to finish. That must have been why. I realized, as I was revising location encounters, that there was no pattern to the placement of the bad things that befall investigators. Are they Cursed? Arrested? Delayed? Do they lose Sanity? Stamina? An item? Clue tokens? Money?

I hadn’t really thought about it at all before now. I had a sort of instinctive idea as to how to assign the “bad stuff,” but looking over some of the encounters now, I’m left wondering, “Why? Why do these encounters delay an investigator if they fail a check, while these others end in their arrest? Why are they Lost in Time and Space?”

A Curse is a nasty condition for anyone. While Cursed, an investigator only succeeds on a check if they roll a six. The Curse might disappear after only a turn, but it could also persist for the better part of the game. About the only thing worse than failing five out of six dice rolls, is not being able to do anything at all for any length of time.

Losing a turn comes in three flavors: Delayed, Arrested, and Lost in Time and Space. An investigator who’s delayed receives no Movement Points on their turn. They can still be moved by encounters and other effects, but they can’t move under their own power, and they can’t read a tome. Being arrested moves them to the Police Station.

When arrested, an investigator is “fined” half their money, placed in the jail cell, and has no encounter in the next round. The next turn, they move to the Police Station, and can move wherever they like after that. When Lost in Time and Space, they’re removed from the board and delayed, losing two turns.

Losing items can be direct or indirect. If an investigator goes unconscious or insane, they must discard half their items. An encounter might also call for an investigator to “discard all tomes,” “lose one Unique item of your choice,” or “discard one Weapon.” But again, why does one encounter call for an arrest when another forces a discard.

So, why one and not another? That’s a good question. See, now I’d be inclined to match some of the bad things up with corresponding Skills, like the loss of Stamina or Sanity be focused on encounters using Fight or Will, while encounters that arrest or delay be linked to Speed and Sneak. The punishment should fit crime, right?

So, yeah. It’s going to take a bit of pondering. Going to have to come back to it.